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Humanitarian Workers Pull Out Of IDPs Camp In Maiduguri Following Recent Attack On Some Donors

Humanitarian workers have pulled out of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp located on Gubio road in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital following last weekend's attack on some donors by the IDPs. On Saturday, some donors who visited the camp to donate food items to the IDPs, were attacked and their vehicles destroyed by the IDPs who complained that the food item they brought was too small. As a result of the attack, all humanitarian workers in the camp yesterday announced they were pulling out of the camp and that they would only resume when their safety is guaranteed.

One of the IDPs, Ibrahim Abubakar, who spoke to Channels TV, said the donors gave them small portions of sorghum that they should manage for a month or two.

“We were angry with these people (humanitarian workers) not because of the sorghum they gave us, but because we simply asked for a quantity that would adequately feed us and our families. Two bowls cannot sustain us for a whole month, no one can survive on two bowls of sorghum for a whole month; that is our problem. But if they bring food that would sustain us up to a month we would be happy.”

Another displaced person, Maimuna Kassum, said, “The protest was done because of the delay in food distribution and when they finally came, they didn’t bring enough. That was why people protested. In the past, they used to give us rice but this time around they brought sorghum; two bowls for every family for the next one month. It won’t be enough since we have children and that’s why people got impatient and did what they did. With this kind of problems, returning home would have been better for us, it’s just that we don’t have a home when we return,” she lamented.

Reacting to the attack, the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Ahmed Satori, said the protest was not as a result of the quantity of the food but was as a result of the choice of food requested by the IDPs.

“The Gubio incident is not an issue of insufficient food but a breach of communication, based on complaints by the IDPs over their choices of rice over sorghum while others preferred sorghum over rice. So in the process, there was a delay for about one week while we were trying to sort things out and then an issue came up that if they are taking sorghum, the ration has to be increased. All these should not give them room to attack humanitarian workers, this is unacceptable and we are working with the security agencies to arrive at a common ground so that the distribution will continue,” he said